Linderhof

Gardening, Cooking and Decorating on the Prairie of Kansas

Welcome to Linderhof, our 1920's home on the prairie, where there's usually something in the oven, flowers in the garden for tabletops and herbs in the garden for cooking. Where, when company comes, the teapot is always on and there are cookies and cakes to share in the larder.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

A New Year's Tradition

As turkey soups follows the Thanksgiving bird and as lamb curry follows the Easter lamb, ham and beans follows the Christmas ham. New Year's Day is perfect for a slow simmering pot of beans with the Christmas hambone.

But this year we went to a New Year's Day Open House and so the ham and beans had to wait until January 2. It was a cold day with snow still on the ground, the smell of the simmering soup wafted through the house as I took down the fresh greens and put away the nativity set. The tree would wait until the next day.

With any ham and beans, cornbread is a must. I like to bake it in a cast iron skillet. Served warm with butter melting inside. It is heaven and reminds me that perhaps I should make cornbread more often.

The beans are my grandmother's recipe -- simple. The beans (and like her I prefer the limas or "butter beans" as she called them), some onion and the ham bone. Cover with water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover. Simmer until done. An afternoon is perfect! Just make sure that the beans stay covered with water.

It's the first Blue Monday of 2010 so join Smiling Sally for other blues this Monday.

17 comments:

Mmmmm that sounds yummy. I'll be freezing the ham bone to make soup on another day. There's nothing like that good home made smell, although I like to make a thick yellow pea soup with my ham bone. Every time you mention cornbread it makes my mouth water. When I was a child we had ours with butter and molasses.

Happy New Year Martha! We have been making a lot of soups with this cold weather here in Kansas!I'm thinking about getting some thermals to deal with this week ahead. I hear our "High" on Thursday is going to be 2 degrees and I thought 20 was cold! Bring on the soups!

Ummm, I like your cornbread, cut into wedges. Makes it so much prettier than just the squares I make. The next time I'll bake it in a round cake pan. This is one reason why I love blogland... I am always inspired to do new things.